Lab C: Chapter 22 - Promises

Sabine walks onto Director 5’s front porch. Director 5 slowly leans out of the top right window, her large hands grip the white flowers so tightly they bleed under her fingers.

“Dr. Ambower.”

Sabine looks up, she’s misty eyed. Her cheeks, tear stained.

“Don’t forget what we talked about.”

Sabine nods, and steps off the porch, immediately veiled in shadow. Director 5 looks into the shadows of the floor and massive red eyes from very far away look back at her. She smiles and waves dreamily, so smitten and in love.

Back with the dudes…————————————————————————————--

Chuck flies into the wall of The Swarm, who pushes back Dr. Tesla and tries to catch Chuck in their cloud. The Swarm fails. Chuck takes another leap and is about to bring his knee down into Dr. Tesla, when he sees Dr. Tesla holding the “Free” shotgun at the ready.

Chuck phases through him and into the floor then pops up behind him. He looks for a second, his eyes squint.

“Empty”

But his ire is short lived as The Swarm is upon him. He swings wildly into it the cloud, punches turn to slaps. Dead flies go soaring from the cloud, but it doesn’t noticeably thin. Chuck roars and brings his hands together created a shock wave that disrupts The Swarm.

From the clearing, John comes soaring through the air, over Dr. Tesla for a flying punch. Chuck back hands him out of the air, but John is able to get his guard up, imprinting his grieves and shin guards into the concrete surface.

As John tries to wiggle himself free, he sees Lily gnawing at Chuck’s leg. He giggles.

Chuck roars and throws a wild hay maker into John who barely has time to deflect it. He sinks deeper into the wall.

“HOW!” Chuck strikes again. “ARE YOU!” Chuck strikes harder. John’s be-lightning knuckled hands are folding between the straps of the grieves and the edge of the concrete hole his grieves form. “ALWAYS SO FUCKING” Chuck spin shin kicks John “HAPPY”

Dr. Tesla runs up and smashes his “Free shotgun” so hard into Chuck’s back he drops it. Chuck looks at him, and kicks him so hard he goes flying. He hits the floor and slides, coughing up blood as he comes to a stop.

John looks at him, and sees Dr. Tesla move and affirms his focus on Chuck. “Cause Chuck…” John smashes the lightning knuckles together, the impact bursts the wall, freeing him. He lands in a low squat, Chuck looks at him with insanity in his eyes, The Swarm gathering behind him.

With all the sincerity and earnestness, looking up from below his knees and into his eyes, John finishes, “I believe in a thing called love.”

Swerving at his abs with immense torque, John combos up Chuck’s body. Left knee. Right thigh. Right abdomen. Left pec. Right collar bone. A REACHING uppercut into the left chin. A leaping side haymaker into Chucks right temple.

The intensity and lightning explode from each blow chipping through Chuck’s rocky exterior. More of his aged flesh peeks through.

Chuck stumbles screaming. The Swarm enters his mouth and he starts to choke. He covers his mouth and John steps back, concerned. “Ah Chuck. Not like-”

Chuck ROARS, wet, crushed flies spewing from his mouth. His time in the Earth, his time in the caves, explodes out from of him. He starts chomping at the Swarm and swallowing. The loss of pieces of their consciousness terrifies them and they begin to retreat.

Chuck gives chase. John whispers to himself, “Darkest before the light. Will almost gone.” then chases the chaser. John leaps onto Chucks back and starts pounding. Chuck falls forward and phases through the floor, immediately coming back and phasing through John. Chuck reaches back and grabs John’s collar as he’s turning around and Chuck flings John down the hall.

Dr. Tesla slowly looks up as The Swarm retreats behind him. He sees explosions of lightning and crashes of concrete as Chuck’s predictable primal rage has made him much easier to hit, and his hits much harder into their target.

As he squints, trying to see what’s happening, he sees a piece of paper falling from the sky.

Titled: “SPECIAL REQUISITION REQUEST FORM”

Dr. Tesla blinks, then looks to his side, and there is the bright, LED lit, mad house of tools. He scrambles inside. The Swarm pauses its retreat, noticing Dr. Tesla. It forms a human shape and sneaks over to a piece of wall, and sticks its hand through it, like fucking platform 9 and 3/4s and steps in.

This time, Dr. Tesla takes his time. Behind him, through the Special Requisitions door, John goes flying back in a horizontal line. Chuck chases the rag dolled body, and grabs a chunk of wall to throw at him before leap towards his enemy.

Dr. Tesla approaches the counter, “What do you have that can stop a rock monk thing guy.”

“Oh, you mean Chuck? C-whatever the fuck. Wait who are you?” The guard behind the counter looks at the Swarm. “Wait. Who are you too?”

“I’m D-,”

“Duh? Like the response?”

“I’m Dr. Tesla. That’s The Swarm. Please tell me what you have that can take down Chuck.”

“You don’t know what we got? How can I get you something if you don’t know what it is?”

“Can’t you just tell me what you have?”

“Pfft, I don’t know what the hell is in here.” He picks up a glass cube with a black hole inside it. “Pretty sure this is an infinite tissue box.” He chucks it away and a 10 foot sphere of space blips out of existence. The guard admires the result, “Damn, those are good tissues.”

“Wait, if you don’t know what’s in here, how do you get what people need?”

“Because you have to know what we have, and you have to know what you need. I can’t help someone who doesn’t know what they need.”

Dr. Tesla squints. “I want the Chuck killing gun.”

"Great, you’ve got the form. Fill it in.”

Dr. Tesla looks down at the form and the spaces for information are dense. Dimensions. Quantity. Location of Origin. Culture of Origin. Dimension of Origin. Original Purpose. Intended Purpose. Name. Designation.

Dr. Tesla looks at the guard behind the counter. Behind him, The Swarm has spread out, a single fly looking over and investigating each single thing it can find. The Swarm quickly realizes that this space goes farther back than it’s daring to go, and so it just takes in what it can.

The guard behind the counter notices a few flys investigating on the glass case. From his sleeve, his produces a regular fly swatter. SNAP SNAP SNAP! and kills three of them.

The Swarm shoots back together behind Dr. Tesla and takes the form of a cowering child. The Guard behind the counter reaches down and produces an ominous, florescent green dripping spray can. “Move out of the way, this guys gross. Get out of my store.”

Dr. Tesla starts to put up his hands, but The Swarm stops him, nods understandingly and starts to walk out.

Through the door, they see Chuck stumble back, blood dripping from an obscene smile. John slams his fists into the ground, and straight leg propels himself like a missile into Chuck’s collar bones. They disappear.

The Swarm nods, then disappears into Dr. Tesla’s clothes. He freezes, experiencing one of the most uncomfortable sensations of a thousand crawling things and buzzing just above the skin cover his enter body.

“Bullets.”

The guard behind the counter lowers the spray can, tilts his head.

Straight armed, again, deeply, insanely uncomfortably, Dr. Tesla raises the “Free” shotgun. “Bullets for this.”

“Well what kind of bullets do you think we have?”

“Big. Big bullets. Big explody bullets.” Then he stops, and relaxes. He looks at the spray can almost hidden at the Guard behind the counters waist. The spray kinda… feels like… a shield.

“No. A gas. A sleepy gas. Sleep gas bullets! You have to have sleep bullets. There are sleepy bullets here. You have bullets that put people to sleep.”

“Oh sure, death is kind of the ultimate sleep ain’t it? I’m sure I got some shotgun bullets that’ll give someone the death kind of sleep.”

“What? No, I mean…” he looks down at the Special Requisitions Request form and awkwardly leans over, members of the Swarm crawling out of his shirt collar and sleeves to investigate the situation, then hiding back under his clothes.

He slowly scratches in, “Compressed… what’s the word for gas that puts you to sleep…”

“Narcotic!” says the guard behind the counter.

Behind the front door, Chuck is holding John up against the opposite wall by his coat and punching, and punching, and punching him. John is guarding, but small cracks are forming in the grieves and shin guards.

“What?” Dr. Tesla says, “No, no like the drugs that put you to-”

“Yeah, narcotics are drugs. They put me to sleep.” He produces a bag of white powder and empty shotgun shells. “I think we can make something out of this.”

“NO! No. Not narcotic bullets.”

“Maybe a nice sedative then?”

“That sounds kinda weak. Not compressed sedatives…” Dr. Tesla tries to think, a fly crawls up his neck and into his ear. It takes everything in him not to smash the fly, but he recoils and makes a, “gguguuhhh” sound.

“I’ma spray um.” The guard behind the counter pulls up the can again. Dr. Tesla shakes his head.

The single unit of The Swarm rests in his ear hole and starts buzzing its wings with intention.

VVVV-VVV-VVVVV-VV

Dr. Tesla freezes. “Are you trying to…” He listens with all his might.

Outside, there’s a silent eruption of lightning and Chuck stumbles back. John is hidden behind his body, but there’s another eruption. Chuck catches him and flings him backwards, CRASHING through the glass door.

Chuck’s shoulders and frame smashes through with him and sends concrete shooting into the room. Chuck picks up and slams him into the case where the “Free Shotgun” was, paying no mind to anything else.

John looks back for a moment, smirks, then back to Chuck and starts smashing his forearms. Chuck screams but doesn’t let go, smashing John around, his coat remarkably clean and intact.

Dr. Tesla just watches, much of The Swarm crawls up to his neck to see.

The Swarm member in his ear goes again, VVVV-VVV-VVVVV-VV

“I… I don’t know… I don’t know what that means.” Dr. Tesla says, enraptured by the violence in front of him.

“WE COULD USE SOME ANESTHETIC DR.” John says as his punch breaks away a chunk of stone skin in Chuck’s forearm. He punches the exposed part and Chuck releases that hand, screaming. Still holding John with the other hand, he waves him around as he screams and moves to rid himself of the inescapable frustration and pain.

John’s bleeding from a lot of places at this point, but he still smirks.

“Maybe we don’t, do we Chuck? You’re looking pretty… willed out huh?”

Chuck throws him out of the room and stomps towards him. “You’re taking Steve Jobs place. You die. Then I rampage through this whole place until I get bored. Then I will wait through time and come back just to end you before you’re born.”

“I gotta say Chuck, I don’t necessarily believe you went around time just to kill Steve Jobs.”

Then Chuck smiles. “And now I know not to believe a John Grimsen promise.” Chuck picks up his foot, cocking it for a MASSIVE kick. However, the words stung more than any blow has so far. John’s smile falters.

“I was going to help you Chuck. I was.”

The foot starts to come down.

“I just needed more time.”

Every sinew and fiber of Chuck’s hip, and thigh, and back, and calve and foot flex in rhythm to deliver a world ending kick, when suddenly.

FWOOM!

A blue cloud EXPLODES into his back and smashes forward, hitting his face on the wall above John who rolls out of the way. Chuck takes a huge breath of blue cloud in, then a lighter one. His eyes flicker.

John holds his breath, crouches, ready to explode forward, and with both hands punches into Chuck’s hip, sending him to the floor.

“I’m sorry, Chuck.” John says. He punches Chuck’s throat. Chuck coughs, his eyes wanting to close so badly.

Chuck swings and hits John in the face. John’s fist explodes with lightning into Chuck’s wrist. He rears back up, and punches Chuck in the throat again.

“I’m sorry!”

Chuck flails and arm up, and John deflects it easily. He rears up and stops himself. He looks down at Chuck, so much of his rock skin broken, revealing stretched, aged, human skin underneath. His blood, though too deep a red, running down the cracks and crevices.

Chuck coughs, willing himself to stay awake. He smiles at John.

“I’m glad it was you John.”

John takes a deep breath, pulls himself into perfect form to deliver a final blow.

Dr. Tesla and The Swarm watch from the cover of the broken door frame. Dr. Tesla motions for John to do it. “just, fking, John, fucking, come on.”

John is about to deliver it, when Sabine’s voice chirps up from his watch. “Do NOT kill C-237. Stand Down Dr. Grimsen, he’s subdued.”

“John… you promised me my purpose. This is my purpose. Do it. DO IT!” Chuck says, spitting up some blood.”

“Dr. Grimsen. You promised to preserve and understand. Do NOT do it!”

John brings down his punch and caves in Chuck’s throat. Chuck goes limp.

Silence.

“I expect a report about this event in the next hour.”

Silence.

John stands up, tears running down his face. He whispers to himself, “Please, please please please please please please please.”

Dr. Tesla is waiting for the moment he can release all of this built up energy and excitement.

Lily rubs herself into John’s legs in a soothing circle around him.

John grits his teeth, “pleaseee”